Baseball on Ice

We had tickets to Opening Day. The key word there is "had," because the game was snowed out and postponed until the next day. Disappointing, but it happens. This is April in Chicago after all.

We couldn't make it to the next day's game so I exchanged the tickets for April 28th. A bummer, because I love Opening Day: the crowd, the pageantry, the spring-is-here feeling that accompanies the event. But I already had tickets to the April 25th game and I resigned myself to making the third week of the season my own Opening Day.

April 25th was a Saturday and was promising. There was some dampness in the morning that was expected to clear by game time, and although it was a bit muggy it was okay -- I was going to the game. My son and his friends were going to meet me there and a good time would be had by all. I put on my White Sox T-shirt and a light jacket and hit the road.

I got to the park before they did and loitered in the Bullpen Sports Bar eating peanuts and sipping a beer. It was still damp but the game was going to be played. The others showed up about a half-hour before game time and as lineups were being announced we went to our seats.

When we emerged up the ramp I was stunned. Let me rephrase that: I was flash-frozen. The temperature had dropped more than 30 degrees since I left my house and it was a biting 39 at game time. My flimsy windbreaker and long-sleeved T-shirt were no match for the meat-locker conditions outside.

After the first half-inning I went on a quest for hot coffee. After four innings I went on another. After seven innings I wandered madly on the concourse looking for a hot beverage like a hyena prowling the savanna, but to no avail. The game went on heedlessly as the Sox scored big in a 10-2 rout, no doubt swinging the bats harder to stay warm. Briskly I got back to my car after the game and made sure the heater worked.

Three days later, the 28th, was my exchanged-ticket date, which turned out to be a doubleheader because the previous day's game had also been postponed due to foul weather. I wised up by then and wore several layers, though I didn't think I'd need them. Amazingly, game-time temperature was 38 degrees -- it was actually colder than it had been on Saturday. We sat in frozen torpor as the Sox let themselves get routed 9-1 in the second game after they'd won a tight one 2-1 behind Bartolo Colon in the first game.

The White Sox have played uninspired ball so far this year, and since I'm an irrational fan I have decided that it's the fault of the anomalous arctic weather. There must be some correlation between frosty bats and runners left in scoring position. As explanations go it's as good as any I've heard.

Comments

Seriously, GREAT blog post! I know exactly how you felt on April 25. I wore a Sox polo and at the very last second before walking out of the house, I grabbed my fleece Sox hoodie and threw it in my bag "just in case." Fortunately, I'd decided to change into jeans and gym shoes from shorts and flops before leaving, too!

I got to the ballpark earlier than my friend with the tickets, so I went over to Grandstand for awhile. It was still comfortable and the hoodie was not needed. I came out of Grandstand and the conditions were the same. I got out of my car on 33rd St. to meet up with my friend when she got down to the ballpark about 15 minutes later and was stunned at how quickly and sharply the temperature had dropped.

I had gotten a horrible cold a few days before after getting back from Florida and felt lousy that day, so I lasted two innings in the seats. Feeling as lousy as I did, I knew the last place for me was out in the damp, cold, windy weather. I watched the rest of the game on a little LCD TV by the picnic tables on the concourse near Section 110 because it was out of the elements none of us were prepared for. It was pretty anticlimactic, as I missed Alexei's slam "in person," but at least I wasn't totally frozen.

It was rough sitting in the outfield grandstand those nights. Fortunately I didn't have to deal with a cold like you did. They should sell hot chicken soup along with the coffee -- if that had been available you could've warmed yourself and cured your cold at the same time!

Thanks for the kind words about the TBGRs. Just trying to put some lipstick on a pig, given the way the Sox have played this season. Here's hoping as the season progresses we'll have reasons to use grandiloquent prose to describe our heroes magnificent performances!

But if we keep waiting for hits with runners in scoring position, maybe not.